Well, my elimination fight probably didn’t go the way most people expected considering we were two boxers meeting in the octagon. I actually didn’t know who Revelina Berto was. I knew her brother Andre because in 2008 we were both voted NABF “Fighter of the Year,” but I didn’t know her.

For me, I actually didn’t know any of the girls. I didn’t even know one. I don’t know a lot about their backgrounds. I’m just kind of winging it. My house was robbed a few years ago, and they took everything, including my computer. Since I never used it that much to begin with, I haven’t ever replaced it. That means when I watch fights, I only see what’s on TV, which is usually just the men. Since my background was mostly boxing, I just never had a chance to learn much about all of the cast members.

Usually, when you go into a fight, you know something about your opponent, but I didn’t know anything. I didn’t know what to expect. I knew I was facing a girl that was bigger than me. Most of them are. But for some reason, I just took her down in the first round, and it didn’t work out really good for me. She had me in a bunch of different submissions. I was just able to kind of get out of everything and eventually get the omo plata for the win.

I was so excited to win, but there were so many emotions at once. I thought about how I was going to be away from my son for more than a month, but I’m also thinking about how this could be the beginning of a brand new career. I hadn’t fought in a year, and I feel like I’ve had to start from the beginning again. This just felt like a fresh, new start for me. That said, it’s hard to be away from my son. I’m a single mom, so there’s definitely a strong bond between us. He’d never been with anyone but me, so to leave him was difficult. But he was in good hands with my aunt, who is like a mom to me. He stayed with all of my family back in Canada, so he had a blast and was spoiled rotten the whole time.

After the win, it was time to pick teams. I ended up being the last pick, and it made my stomach drop. When they first had us line up, I just thought, “Please don’t pick me last.” Then I was picked last. You could see it on my face. It was embarrassing. Plus I was frustrated because I had injured my shoulder in the fight. I think it separated when I picked her up with one arm, so it was just very frustrating right away.

Once we got back to the house, we got to see Tim Gorman express his concern for training with females. I have to admit, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen that kind of attitude. I was just thinking, “I don’t want to listen to this guy all night long.” I’m such a light sleeper now after having my son that anything wakes me up. I was just thinking how loud this guy was going to be and how I was never going to get any sleep.

Obviously Tim eventually had to leave the house because of his hamstring injury, and we all respected him for how tough he was for going through what he did, but we all knew he was probably going home right away. He was up drinking and partying for the few days he was there. You obviously can’t do that when you first come in the house, so we knew something had to be up. I think he knew he was going home and just decided to have a blast.

Of course, then you had Anthony Gutierrez calling me a “hot cougar.” As soon as that aired I had tons of texts from friends and family laughing about that. But Anthony was just like a little kid in the house. I think he really did the most flirting with Jessamyn Duke.

Being on Ronda Rousey‘s team was a little tough at first. She’s very intense, and the tension with her and Miesha Tate made things a little uncomfortable at first. You didn’t want to be seen talking to Miesha, so we all just kind of stayed away. Fortunately, after that first big exchange in the gym, their team didn’t stay around much after practice, so we didn’t have to have much time together. Ronda’s coaches were very nice to me. They all actually knew an Armenian boxer I used to work with, so they were all very helpful in the beginning.

The fight was picked immediately between Shayna Baszler and Julianna Pena. I didn’t know much about either of them, so I didn’t know what to expect. Once we went back to the house, I heard how confident Shayna was and just assumed she was going to dominate. But that fight proved you can’t ever take any opponent too lightly. We were all surprised at the result, but we also knew it was too early to get down on the whole team. One fight can’t predict how the whole season will go, and Ronda was very adamant that she wasn’t going to let any of us lose after that first fight.

The great thing about Shayna was how positive she stayed after the loss. I assumed the locker room was going to be very uncomfortable and depressing, but she was a class act and really tried to keep the spirits of the entire team up heading into the next fight. We had lost control of the matchups, but we weren’t ready to give up this early.